Trust me, I'm lying

Blogs make the news -- How to turn nothing into something in three way-too easy steps -- Blogs as a business : a brief overview -- Tactic #1: bloggers are poor, help pay their bills -- Tactic #2: tell them what they want to hear -- Tactic #3: give them what spreads, not what's good -- Tactic # 4: help them trick their readers -- Tactic #5: sell them something they can sell (exploit the one off problem) -- Tactic #6: make it all about the headline -- Tactic #7: kill 'em with pageview kindness -- Tactic #8: use the technology against itself -- Tactic #9: just make stuff up (everyone else is doing it) -- The monster attacks : what blogs mean -- Irin carmon, the daily show, and me: the perfect storm of how toxic blogging can be -- There are others : the manipulator hall of fame -- Cute but evil : online entertainment tactics that drug you & i -- The link economy : the leveraged illusion of sourcing -- Extortion via the web : facing the online shakedown -- The iterative hustle : online journalism's bogus philosophy -- The myth of corrections -- Cheering on our own deception -- The dark side of snark : when internet humor attacks -- The 21st century degradation ceremony : blogs as machines of hatred and punishment -- Welcome to unreality -- How to read a blog : an update on account of all the lies -- Conclusion.

Reviews and Notes

You've seen it all before. A malicious online rumor costs a company millions. A political sideshow derails the national news cycle and destroys a candidate. Some product or celebrity zooms from total obscurity to viral sensation. What you don't know is that someone is responsible for all this. Usually, someone like me.

I'm a media manipulator. In a world where blogs control and distort the news, my job is to control blogs - as much as any one person can. In today's culture . . .

1) Blogs like Gawker , Buzzfeed and the Huffington Post drive the media agenda. 2) Bloggers are slaves to money, technology, and deadlines. 3) Manipulators wield these levers to shape everything you read, see and watch - online and off.

Why am I giving away these secrets? Because I'm tired of a world where blogs take indirect bribes, marketers help write the news, reckless journalists spread lies, and no one is accountable for any of it. I'm pulling back the curtain because I don't want anyone else to get blindsided.

I'm going to explain exactly how the media really works. What you choose to do with this information is up to you.

$a Blogs make the news -- How to turn nothing into something in three way-too easy steps -- Blogs as a business : a brief overview -- Tactic #1: bloggers are poor, help pay their bills -- Tactic #2: tell them what they want to hear -- Tactic #3: give them what spreads, not what's good -- Tactic # 4: help them trick their readers -- Tactic #5: sell them something they can sell (exploit the one off problem) -- Tactic #6: make it all about the headline -- Tactic #7: kill 'em with pageview kindness -- Tactic #8: use the technology against itself -- Tactic #9: just make stuff up (everyone else is doing it) -- The monster attacks : what blogs mean -- Irin carmon, the daily show, and me: the perfect storm of how toxic blogging can be -- There are others : the manipulator hall of fame -- Cute but evil : online entertainment tactics that drug you & i -- The link economy : the leveraged illusion of sourcing -- Extortion via the web : facing the online shakedown -- The iterative hustle : online journalism's bogus philosophy -- The myth of corrections -- Cheering on our own deception -- The dark side of snark : when internet humor attacks -- The 21st century degradation ceremony : blogs as machines of hatred and punishment -- Welcome to unreality -- How to read a blog : an update on account of all the lies -- Conclusion.